KOLKATA: Following Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s comment that the recovery of illegal arms and search for the bodies of missing political activists would continue in the state, leader of opposition in the West Bengal assembly Surya Kant Mishra Tuesday asked why was the government not confiscating the guns of Maoists instead.
Mishra’s comments came hours after Banerjee said the operation to recover illegal arms as well as finding the bodies of those missing and feared dead will continue in the state.
“Why are so many skeletons tumbling out? Many people in the state are feared to be dead but their bodies have not yet been found.
Without a body you don’t get a death certificate and without such certificate you cannot claim insurance money or gratuity or other claims.
So finding the bodies is necessary for their family,” Banerjee said.
“What is the harm in finding the dead bodies? It is being done under the law and law will take it own course.
This has nothing to do with us,” added Banerjee.
Mishra, a senior leader of opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), was far from impressed.
“She says recovery of arms and the skeletons will continue.
But I want to ask why is she not recovering the guns from the Maoists? Why are not the skeletons of those who were killed by the Maoists in Junglemahal being recovered,” he asked.
After Banerjee assumed power in May this year, ending 34 years of uninterrupted Left Front rule, there has been a spate of recoveries of illegal arms as well as skeletons allegedly of Trinamool Congress workers killed during the Left regime.
In one such skeleton recovery case in West Midnapore, CPI-M leader and former minister Sushanta Ghosh has been arrested and sent to judicial custody by a court.(IANS)
